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All
Saints, Thorpe Abbotts

I do not
like the A143, the awful road between Diss and
the east coast ports; the way it acts as a funnel
for all the transport firms of the south of
England, as their juggernauts race towards
departures from Yarmouth and Lowestoft, makes it
a nightmare to cycle. If I had to do it every day
then I do not think I would last very long.

Poor All Saints sits
right beside it, with only a farm and a
hard-standing area for company. The village, with
its curiously spelt name, sits to the north. The
church is kept locked, but I suspect that this is
a mark of being in the Scole benefice as much as
any dangers posed by travellers on the road. Few
of the Scole benefice's churches actively welcome
visitors, but Thorpe Abbotts is lucky in that it
has a local historian, Simon Beet, as a PCC
member who is happy to open up to those
interested. You can contact him via the church website.

Unfortunately, I
had come this way without his name and number, and so I
missed out on the opportunity on this occasion. Instead,
I could only explore the outside, with its round tower.
Mortlock says that this is Saxon, topped by late medieval
additions. I wondered if the whole piece might be 13th
century, and built in one go. The body of the church, as
you can see, is most extensively Victorianised, but may
be contemporary with the tower, and there are features of
great interest within.

Peter Stephens
visited on a recent Historic Churches bike ride day, and
some of his photos are below. He found the person on duty
to be extremely enthusiastic about visitors, which is
excellent news in this corner of Norfolk where the Church
of England can sometimes seem like an exclusive club to
outsiders. He found a well-kept and typical country
church, almost entirely refurbished in the 19th century
but still with its medieval font and screen. This last is
interesting because it is one of the documented examples
of a font being plastered over by the Anglicans in the
mid-16th century to hide its Catholic imagery - so much
easier and cheaper than having it chiselled off or
replacing the whole piece. The Rector of the 1840s saw
that it was crumbling, removed the plaster and found
wonderful things. Thousands more fonts had suffered the
same fate, and were similarly revealed.

I can only commend
you to visit, and make it clear quite how much you value
the opportunity.